Italian Association on Addiction Psychiatry 2002 International Meeting Proceedings. This volume is a wide-spectrum reflection springing from the contributions of some of the most important European and American researchers in the dual diagnosis field, who were involved in the national SIP.Dip. Conference in Milan on July 2002. They contributed to a shared understanding of issues such as the relevance of psychiatric diagnosis in addiction treatment planning, with experiences from Germany, Netherlands, Greece, Spain, England, and Thomas McLellan's paradigmatic research on assessment instruments carried out over the last 30 years in the USA.

Whether drinking Red Bull, relieving chronic pain with oxycodone, or experimenting with Ecstasy, Americans participate in a culture of self-medication, using psychoactive substances to enhance or manage our moods. A "drug-free America" seems to be a fantasyland that most people don't want to inhabit. High: Drugs, Desire, and a Nation of Users asks fundamental questions about US drug policies and social norms. Why do we endorse the use of some drugs and criminalize others? Why do we accept the necessity of a doctor-prescribed opiate but not the same thing bought off the street? This divided approach shapes public policy, the justice system, research, social services, and health care. And despite the decades-old war on drugs, drug use remains relatively unchanged. Ingrid Walker speaks to the silencing effects of both criminalization and medicalization, incorporating first-person narratives to show a wide variety of user experiences with drugs. By challenging current thinking about drugs and users, Walker calls for a next wave of drug policy reform in the United States, beginning with recognizing the full spectrum of drug use practices.

The last three decades have seen an explosion of social, psychological and clinical research to identify effective strategies to prevent and treat alcohol-related problems. This ""Essential Handbook"" contains an updated selection of reviews of "what works" drawn from the critically acclaimed "International" "Handbook of Alcohol Dependence and Problems."

Selected specifically for health and other professionals, who need to provide effective responses in their work, these authoritative, science-based reviews are a distillation of the more practical elements, designed to save time for the busy practitioner.

While there have always been norms and customs around the use of drugs, explicit public policies--regulations, taxes, and prohibitions--designed to control drug abuse are a more recent phenomenon. Those policies sometimes have terrible side-effects: most prominently the development of criminal enterprises dealing in forbidden (or untaxed) drugs and the use of the profits of drug-dealing to finance insurgency and terrorism. Neither a drug-free world nor a world of free drugs seems to be on offer, leaving citizens and officials to face the age-old problem: What are we going to do about drugs?
In Drugs and Drug Policy, three noted authorities survey the subject with exceptional clarity, in this addition to the acclaimed series, What Everyone Needs to Know(r). They begin, by defining "drugs," examining how they work in the brain, discussing the nature of addiction, and exploring the damage they do to users. The book moves on to policy, answering questions about legalization, the role of criminal prohibitions, and the relative legal tolerance for alcohol and tobacco. The authors then dissect the illicit trade, from street dealers to the flow of money to the effect of catching kingpins, and show the precise nature of the relationship between drugs and crime. They examine treatment, both its effectiveness and the role of public policy, and discuss the beneficial effects of some abusable substances. Finally they move outward to look at the role of drugs in our foreign policy, their relationship to terrorism, and the ugly politics that surround the issue.
Crisp, clear, and comprehensive, this is a handy and up-to-date overview of one of the most pressing topics in today's world.
What Everyone Needs to Know(r) is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

The timely recognition of physical health problems in patients with severe mental disorders is emerging as an important priority in the medical health field. Although it is well known that persons with addictions to illicit substances often develop a variety of mental health and physical health conditions, the epidemiological associations between physical illness and addiction to illicit substances are poorly understood. This book comprehensively surveys recent literature to critically review the relationships between physical illness and drugs of abuse, describing the association between each of the principal classes of illicit drugs (cocaine, marijuana, opioids, and common hallucinogens and stimulants) and the major categories of physical illness. Clear summary tables accompany detailed discussions, providing the reader with a quick reference guide. Physical Illness and Drugs of Abuse will be essential reading for all health professionals, students, practising clinicians and policy makers with interests in mental health, public health and epidemiology.

Why do individuals smoke? In discussing this central question, the authors first examine a number of studies of the complex interaction between the toxicology of smoking and genetically based susceptibility to smoking-related disease, which suggest that the link between smoking and disease is more equivocal than recent epidemiological studies have claimed. Several theories of smoking recruitment and maintenance are considered and judged in the light of the known pharmacological effects of nicotine, a psychoactive drug that is the primary reinforcer in smoking. A review of psychological and behavioural evidence from animal and human studies indicates that nicotine can promote psychological comfort and performance enhancement in a variety of tasks; such effects are produced by self-titration, evidenced in smoking style, which itself is subject to some genetically imposed constraints. The effectiveness of smoking intervention and cessation strategies is assessed, and some improvements suggested, against the background of these putative smoking motives. The book is of value to pharmacologists, psychologists, and specialists in the treatment of drug abuse and in preventive health.

In most countries, problematic drug use is dealt with primarily as a criminal justice issue, rather than a health issue. Accordingly, a large proportion of people in prison have a history of alcohol, tobacco and/or illicit drug use and, despite the best efforts of correctional authorities, some continue to use these substances in prison, often in very risky ways. After release from prison, many relapse to risky substance use, and are at high risk of poor health outcomes, preventable death, or reincarceration. In this edited volume, for the first time we bring together 40 contributors from 10 countries to review what is known about alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use in people who cycle through prisons, and the harms associated with use of these substances. We consider some evidence-based responses to these harms - both in prison and after return to the community - and discuss their implications for policy reform. This book is international in scope and multi-disciplinary in character. It brings together and integrates the perspectives of public health and addictions researchers, criminologists and correctional leaders, epidemiologists, physicians, and human rights lawyers. Our contributors are unified in their commitment to evidence-informed policy - that is, doing what we know works. An overarching theme pervading all of the chapters is that people who cycle through prisons come from the community, and almost always return to the community. Their health problems are therefore our health problems; in other words, 'prisoner health is public health'.

Do you feel trapped by alcohol?
Do you find yourself thinking about drinking too often?
Do you put alcohol ahead of the most important things in your life?

If so - here's some good news. You can quit drinking, and it's not as difficult as you think.

Simon Chapple is a Certified Alcohol Coach who has helped thousands of people change the way that alcohol features in their lives. In How to Quit Drinking in 50 Days he'll give you a structured way to find complete freedom from alcohol - for now, or forever.

This 50-day journey to freedom is split into two parts. Days 1-25 will ask you to take an honest look at the impact alcohol has had on your life, to examine the reasons for your drinking, and will arm you with the best strategy for quitting alcohol successfully. Days 26-50 will ask you to make the commitment to taking a break from alcohol - taking each step with one chapter a day, and answering the questions that come up.

There are strategies for dealing with challenges and setbacks, and a wealth of resources for finding support and inspiration. Above all, there is a genuine passion for the sober adventure, and the huge rewards of an alcohol-free life - a life of freedom that's waiting for you.

This book provides an introduction for psychologists to screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT), an evidence-based approach to identifying and treating substance use across a variety of behavioral health care settings and client populations. SBIRT has proven to be an efficient, cost effective way to identify harmful substance use and related problems and enhance individuals' motivation to change their behavior. Chapters present overviews of screening tools and approaches to brief intervention appropriate for diverse target populations; concrete steps for implementing SBIRT in a range of practice settings; and recommendations for training, advocacy, and policy. Psychologists who learn and implement SBIRT will be better equipped to meet the needs of their clients and help address the public health problem of substance use in this country. br> The aim of this book is to attend to psychologists' reluctance to address substance use with their clients. By engaging clients in proactive, open-minded conversations on this topic, providers can help lower the rates of harmful substance use.

The book that revolutionized the psychotherapist's approach to treating alcoholism

When it was first published in 1985, Treating the Alcoholic challenged traditional psychotherapeutic approaches to alcoholism treatment. Since then, thousands of mental health professionals, using Dr. Stephanie Brown's treatment model, have found renewed faith in their ability to help alcoholic patients achieve lasting recovery.

The book begins by studying the experiences of people who have stopped drinking and provides firsthand descriptions of the inevitable emotional, physical, and psychological problems that follow. Dr. Brown then offers a model for treatment that replaces the notion of abstinence as a static state with a dynamic, process-oriented "continuum of recovery" principle. She translates the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous into psychological terms, taking particular care to explain the crucial notion of "loss of control." Perhaps the most surprising element of Dr. Brown's model is her emphasis on the triadic therapeutic relationship in which therapist, patient, and AA counselor work in partnership to ensure ongoing recovery.

Once considered a radical departure from the conventional wisdom, Treating the Alcoholic offers a now-proven approach that enables psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, alcoholism counselors, and other mental health professionals to understand the dynamics of alcoholism and make profound contributions to the recovery process.

One of the Washington Post's Ten Best Books of 2013

More than twenty-three thousand women die from heavy drinking in the United States each year. Incidents of binge drinking and so-called drunkorexia are on the rise, contributing to an exponential increase in the number of health conditions and cancers among women.

Combining in-depth research with her own personal story of recovery, the award-winning journalist Ann Dowsett Johnston tells of maintaining her high-powered career as a vice principal of McGill University while wrestling with the demon that defeated her own mother: alcohol addiction. After a very private exit from her professional life, Dowsett Johnston went to rehab; now sober, she has dedicated her career to examining the relationship between women and high-risk drinking.

In Drink, Dowsett Johnston dissects the psychological, social, and workplace factors that contribute to this crisis, and explores its far-reaching effect on both society at large and individual lives. Comprehensive and emotionally compelling, Drink is a brave and powerful story, beautifully told, and an important investigation into an epidemic that we can no longer afford to ignore.

Self-help organizations across the world have attracted millions of individuals seeking to address addiction problems with drugs or alcohol. This book provides an integrative, international review of research that focuses on how these organizations affect individual members and whether self-help groups and formal health care systems can work together to combat substance abuse. In addition, it offers practical strategies for individual clinicians and treatment systems on how to interact with self-help organizations.